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I 'm afraid my early attempts at making a router table were nothing to write home about. The first three designs-a table with legs, a cabinet base and a table attached to my tablesaw-all ended up on the scrap heap. They were just too bulky, a fatal flaw when it came to my small shop and lack of storage space. It finally occurred to me all I really need- ed was a simple router table that could be clamped to my workbench. Here's how it works: I attach my router to a plastic insert and drop it into the frame of the table; the router hangs over the front edge of my bench. A sliding fence rides on top of the frame and adjusts easily. The mass of the bench kept the router table from vibrating, but best of all, the whole assembly is compact and easy to store (see the drawing). The key was in finding a way to clamp the assembly to my bench, so it wouldn't move. I did that by sizing the frame of the router table, so it spanned my bench exactly. Then I held the frame in place with a simple clamp made of a wooden wedge and a length of all-thread. Building the frame for your bench and router The first step is to decide how large a tabletop you need for your miter. Allow enough room for the knobs and handles on your router, and give yourself room to adjust the router when it's attached to the table. Just how much is enough depends on your router. I have a D-handle on my router, so I had to cut a relief in the framing to accommodate it. I made the frame for my router table of hard maple. The corners are fastened with #10 wood screws, so assembly is easy. The router table stays in place because it grabs both the front and the back edge of my workbench. Attached to the rear of the router-table frame is a maple wedge that hooks over the back edge of my bench. Screwed into the bottom of the frame near the front of the table are two dogs that press against the front edge of the bench. I added 80-grit sandpaper on the inside faces of these pieces to give them a better bite. When I tighten the knob at the back of the frame, the wedge pulls up against the bottom of the bench and locks the frame into place. Because the dogs on the front of the frame are tight against the front of the bench, my router table really can't go anywhere. The assembly should hold securely even with the clamp knob a little 100se-t11at's important. If the fit between the router table and your bench is sloppy and the clamping mechanism were to fail, the Photo: Vincent L::turence table would fall on the floor. Not a nice pictu�e: router, work and fingers all mixed together and heading for the deck. M The thick table is a piece of liz-in. Lexan from a dealer's scrap pile. The l1-in. by 13-in. piece cost me 10, but expect to pay more if you have a piece cut to size from stock. Lexan, a polycarbonate, cuts eaSily with a tablesaw, and trimming it to size is no problem. Other plastics may shatter or melt, but Lexan is lovely to work with. Phenolics also work well and are more akin g the tabletop Big router-table performance in a benchtop package-This shop-built router table sets up in seconds and stores easily when not in use. Securely clamped to your bench top, it can do most anything more conventional router tables can. rigid than Lexan. (For more on plastics in t11e woodshop, see The base of t11e router dictates the layout FWW for the mounting holes. Use a drill press with a spade bit turning at low speed (clamp t11e work) and light pressure to cut a 1 1/2-in. hole in the center of the base (a piece of scrapwood beneath the work when drilling will keep t11e bit from jumping when it breaks through). The mounting holes are made with a twist bit, then countersunk. The Lexan is attached to the frame with four #10 wood screws. Fabricating the fence The fence is made to slide on the frame. Two clamps lock it in place. Attached to 105 p. 58.) the right and the left sides of the fence are two pieces of melamine, which support the work as it's fed past the bit. The fence slides on or off in seconds. Once the router is mounted to the table, the table itself can be mounted or removed from the bench in 15 seconds-without changing the position of the fence. The fence has a face board screwed to it with a channel in the back to create a duct for dust collection, as shown in the drawing. I added a plastic finger guard for safety. As a bonus, I find that the guard helps control the dust. D jim Wright is an amateur woodworker in Berkeley, Mass. March/April 1995 57